Pink shirts from Crystal Roger’s family and “Team Crystal” members were scattered throughout the Warren County Justice Center Thursday as proceedings began for the third day in the trial of Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson.
Members of Rogers’ family whispered to each other before court was called to order, many mentioning that they were nervous after the defense’s arguments on Wednesday.
Proceedings begin with Detective Jon Snow, former lead investigator in the Rogers case, continuing his testimony that began the day before. The Commonwealth introduced an interview with Houck and Kentucky State Police in Frankfort on July 7, 2015, four days after Roger’s disappearance.
It began with a KSP investigator asking Houck, “What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?”
Houck had no response.
The rest of the audio was largely unintelligible to most of the courtroom. Jurors, attorneys, and the judge had headphones, but the rest of those in attendance could only hear questions from the investigator, not Houck’s responses.
Supporters of both Rogers and Houck were visibly upset about it.
On the stand, Snow clarified that in the interview, Houck confirmed that Rogers was playing games on her phone on the couch when the two came home from the farm just after midnight on July 4. That contradicts phone records that show Rogers’ phone being dead at that time.
Commonwealth prosecutor Shane Young introduced an aerial view of the Houck family’s 200 acre farm, and said Houck claimed that he, Rogers, and Eli were walking the trails and feeding the cows on the property that night.
The next piece of evidence was a follow-up interview between Snow and Houck on July 8, 2015.
In the video of the interview, Snow asked Houck to write down a statement of exactly what he did between July 3-5, 2015.
“Four and a half hours is a lot of time to be outside in the rain with a two-and-a-half year old,” Snow said in the video.
The video showed Houck writing for roughly 80 minutes, verbalizing everything he did until 7:30. On the stand, Snow said that people do not typically verbalize their statements while they write.
It’s pointed out that Houck was secretly recording himself with a device in his pocket, and can be seen adjusting the recorder during the video.
Jurors received copies of Houck’s statement. After 7:30 p.m., he provided very little detail on what he, Rogers, and Eli did on the farm. He later told Snow during the interview that they walked trails, fed the cows, and started a bonfire.
In the video, Houck told Snow, “Just ask whatever you’ve gotta ask.”
Snow asked if Houck and Rogers had ever considered breaking up. Houck said whenever she would get “worked up,” she would visit either her sister, Brooke, or her cousin, Sabrina.
“After she cooled off and she had a chance to relax a little bit, we always found our way back to each other,” Houck said.
Shifting back to their time on the farm, Snow said Houck’s mother, Rosemary Houck, said she was mowing the grass while they were there. Houck said he didn’t see her, but isn’t surprised if she was mowing in the rain.
“She likes to mow, sometimes she’ll be out mowing when it don’t even need to be mowed,” Houck said.
Snow said that midnight was late for a two-and-a-half-year-old to still be out walking around the farm in the rain.
Houck said, “That’s his 7 or 8:00 in the evening,” saying Eli typically stayed up late with Rogers.
Houck said once again that they went straight home after visiting the farm and he went straight to bed, while Rogers played on her phone.
“She’s just on her phone playing her game. I don’t know what game, just the game she normally played,” Houck said.
Houck’s timeline - July 4, 2015
In the video, Houck remembered waking up between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. the morning of July 4, but didn’t recall what time he tried to contact Rogers after realizing that she was missing. He took Eli with him back to the family farm, where he used their bulldozer to work on the driveway.
When asked why he didn’t report Rogers missing, Houck became frustrated in the video, saying that Snow didn’t understand the situation. He claimed that Rogers sometimes disappeared to go to “fantasy parties” with her sister, Brooke, and her cousin, Sabrina. He said that he grew frustrated because he saw himself as a “single parent” when Rogers wasn’t around for long stretches of time.
On the stand, Snow was asked if there was anything that would lead him to believe that Rogers went to a “fantasy party,” that night.
“No,”Snow replied.
In the video of the interview, Snow asked Houck to recount what happened on July 4.
“I don’t know what we did much, I can’t remember,” Houck said.
He struggled to recall the order of events for the day, but remembered working on the farm, stopping at a gas station, going home to shower, and seeing Rogers’ family for a July 4 get-together.
He remembered speaking to Sherry Ballard, Rogers’ mother. She asked him where Rogers was, and Houck replied that he didn’t know. She told him that they should go to the police.
In the video, he asked Snow, “Is Sherry the one that reported her missing?”
Snow confirmed that she did.
In Houck’s eight-page statement, which was provided to jurors, he marked any blank spaces in his memory with either an X or a “squiggly line.”
“Some of those gaps start to become really important,” Snow told Houck in the video.
Snow said that gaps in time become gaps in the investigation.
“Fantasy parties”
Snow asked if Rogers frequently drank alcohol, used drugs, or was suicidal. Houck denied all lines of questioning, and became apparently offended when asked if Rogers would drink enough to need a ride home from one of the “fantasy parties.”
“She ain’t no drunk. They do go out and they do drink, but what you’re describing is like a sloppy drunk,” Houck said.
In the video, Snow asked Houck about the date night that they had planned together. He also asked Houck about Christina Holly and Amanda Greenwell, and their mentions of a kid-free romantic date. Houck said that Rogers lied to her daughter, Kyleigh Fenwick, about their plans because she did not want Fenwick to be jealous of Eli accompanying them. Snow asked again about Holly.
“Why would she lie to her?” he asked.
“I don’t know, I can’t answer that question,” Houck replied.
Steve Lawson’s call
In the video, Snow asked Houck for details on the 12:07 a.m. call that he received the night that Rogers disappeared. Houck didn’t recognize the number and suggested that they call it during their interview. They did, and Steve Lawson answered.
Houck asked Lawson if he was free to do some work with his skid steer, explaining that his was broken.
“I’m gonna need your help with something, are you booked up next week or can you help me?” Houck asked.
He then asked why Lawson called him so late on the night that Rogers disappeared.
Lawson told Houck that he needed numbers for rental properties, and Houck replied that Lawson would need to get in touch with Rogers.
Rogers was supposedly in the car at the time, but Houck said, “She just doesn’t really handle stuff that late.”
Nick Houck’s call
Another interview with Snow was interrupted by a call from Houck’s brother, and then-Bardstown police officer, Nick Houck.
Nick Houck reportedly told Brooks, “They’re trying to f— us,” and advised that Brooks leave the interview.
Brooks then grew frustrated with Snow, telling him, “Just ask what you gotta ask.”
“I have not given up hope of finding her alive. That being said, you know as well as I that the longer this goes on, the less likely that becomes,” Snow told Houck in the video.
“My job is not to make you happy. My job is to find Crystal,” he continued.
The interview ends after the exchange.
“A clean name”
In the weeks following Rogers’ disappearance, Houck said several times that he was searching for a way to clear his name. In an interview with the legal commentator and television personality Nancy Grace, he echoed his account of what happened on July 3, and told Grace that he wanted to “have a clean name again. That’s very important.”
On July 10, Houck asked Snow what it would take to clear his name. Snow told him adding more detail to his statement would be the first step.
Houck didn’t add anything to his statement.
On the stand, Snow pointed out several gaps in that statement, including surveillance footage of Houck leaving the farm at 7:50 p.m. Houck claims the couple intended to go to Tractor Supply Company, but turned around to go back to the farm, believing the store to be closed.
Surveillance footage from several Bardstown businesses shows Houck going to the farm before 4:00 p.m. on July 3rd, then leaving the farm, presumably to pick up Rogers, then returning to the farm just before 7:30 p.m.
According to Houck’s statement, he only went to the farm with Rogers that day.
Defense cross-examines Snow
Steve Schroering, a defense attorney representing Houck, outlined Snow’s 18 years of law enforcement experience at the time that the trial began, as well as the various agencies involved in the investigation, including the FBI, ATF, Bardstown police, Kentucky State Police, and various volunteer teams.
He said despite their resources, they have found no forensic evidence to support the claim that Houck murdered Rogers.
He reiterated that despite roughly 70 property searches as well as numerous subpoenas, hundreds of witness interviews, and the combined efforts of dozens of agencies, no physical evidence has been found that ties Houck to Rogers’ disappearance.
He also detailed Houck’s cooperation with the case, quoting Houck as saying, “You can take my blood, do whatever you need to do . I will run to the police station to give it to you.”
Schroering said that Houck had every opportunity to claim that Rogers disappeared due to drug or alcohol use or suicidal tendencies, but chose to tell the truth instead. The attorney went on to detail that the integrity of the investigation was tainted from the beginning stages, with Houck’s first interview with Snow being released online.
Following that release, he blames popular podcasts and documentaries for placing public attention and scrutiny on Houck.
The defense team introduced call logs from Brooks Houck the day after Rogers disappeared. They show that Houck attempted to call Rogers at 9:06 a.m. and 12:18 p.m. on July 4, then again at 5:41 p.m. on July 6. All of those calls were sent to voicemail.
They also produced text messages that Houck sent to friends and family of Rogers, asking if they’d been able to contact her.
Implying a history of Rogers’ disappearances, the defense pulled text messages between Rogers and Houck from April 25, 2015.
Around 9 p.m. that night, Rogers texted Houck saying, “I cannot deal with the way you treat me anymore,” and saying that he does things for others, but never her. She continued, “You won’t die if you do something for me.”
He replied, “Please come back home, leaving at night isn’t going to fix anything,” followed by another text, saying, “Running from your problems won’t fix anything.”
The prosecution pointed out that the interaction was roughly four months before Rogers’ disappearance, and doesn’t indicate a pattern of behavior.
Many of the defense’s questions for Snow centered on the lack of physical evidence linking Houck to the crime.
Joseph Lawson’s legal counsel spoke for the first time in the proceedings to clarify that any mention of “Mr. Lawson," or “Lawson ," in Snow’s testimony had been in reference to Steve Lawson, not his son, Joseph.
Steve Lawson was found guilty in a previous trial in Bowling Green on two charges related to the disappearance of Crystal Rogers. A jury recommended a sentence of 17 years in prison.
Following a brief redirection from Commonwealth’s attorney Shane Young, Snow was excused after more than six hours on the witness stand.
Commonwealth’s witness 5 - Marcella Ray
Marcella Ray owned and operated a Radio Shack in Bardstown in 2015. She recalled selling Houck a digital voice recorder two days before his interview with Snow. She recalled that Houck asked for “the best” voice recorder they could offer, and contacted the FBI after learning who she had sold the recorder to.
Gaps in Houck’s statement
In Houck’s eight-page statement provided to the police, he outlined many businesses and individuals he intended to meet with on July 3. Many were in relation to his rental and construction business.
Witnesses included the Nelson County Circuit Clerk, the owner of a vinyl siding business in Bardstown, a former electric company employee, another construction worker, an operator at the local landfill, and the president of a homeowners association where Houck owned several homes.
All were mentioned in Houck’s statement and all said that they did not have any interaction with him on July 3.
Judge strikes a witness statement
The Commonwealth introduced their tenth witness, a realtor and construction worker that worked closely with Houck, named Richie Riggs.
Riggs remembered Rogers as an attentive mother, and when he heard that she had disappeared without her kids, recalled saying, “Well that ain’t right.”
He said he spoke to Rogers around a week before she disappeared, and that Rogers had accused Houck of cheating on her.
The defense quickly objected, and attorneys spoke with Judge Charles Simms at the bench. Jurors were told to disregard Riggs’ statement.
Young then asked Riggs if Rogers was worried that Houck intended to move her out of the house. He said she was.
Danny Singleton
Singleton has been a repeated name throughout the trial. In opening statements, the prosecution claimed that Rosemary Houck approached Singleton asking him to find a way to “get rid” of Rogers.
On the stand, Singleton confirmed that. He said that he and Rosemary got along well, and that she had approached him on a job site where he was working for Houck.
“It was over Crystal and wanting to find somebody to help get rid of her,” Singleton said.
He told Rosemary at the time that he knew of a way to get it done, and that enough money can get anything done. He denies taking any action to actually harm Rogers.
He said that conversation took place, “at most two months before Crystal died.”
The defense team cross-examined Singleton, bringing up his addiction to drugs and alcohol at the time that he claimed the conversation with Rosemary. They also brought up his perjury conviction related to the case in 2016, and implied that the IRS offered Singleton a deal to say that Rosemary was plotting to kill Rogers.
Schroering, supposedly quoting an IRS agent visiting Singleton in prison, said, “A lot of stuff is fixin’ to happen, and we just want to make sure you’re on the right side of it. The best way to make sure you’re on the right side is to tell us what we want to hear.”
“‘To tell the truth,’ is what they told me,” Singleton corrected.
Singleton’s 38 counts of perjury were reduced to three counts of false testimony after making his statement about Rosemary.
Final witnesses
The final two witnesses of the day were employees of two Bardstown window tinting businesses. The prosecution said Houck was in a hurry to get the windows to his truck tinted before July 3, and after multiple calls to both businesses, secured an appointment on July 2.
The legal limit for window tint allows 35% of light to enter the vehicle. Houck’s window tint allowed only 5% to enter, and was illegal. The prosecution claimed it was because Houck did not want anybody to see the empty seat in his truck when he left the farm.
Court will reconvene on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m.
